Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a multistate letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opposing its potential adoption of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act (CAA), which the multistate coalition describes as “equal parts imprudent and legally flawed.” The letter, sent on behalf of Texas and 19 other states, responds to a recent push by several anti-oil and gas states encouraging EPA to adopt these harmful standards.

The campaign to adopt NAAQS “disregards entirely the consequences of its suggested approach for the nation’s economy and industrial capacity,” the coalition argues. “The Supreme Court’s decision this summer [in West Virginia v. EPA, 142 S. Ct. 2587 (2022)] marks the second time the Court has rebuked EPA for novel interpretations of the CAA specifically that would give the agency ‘unheralded’ power to regulate ‘a significant portion of the American economy.’ EPA should heed the Court’s instruction and abide by the regulatory framework Congress set.”

Read the letter here.